HOWTO: Axis Internet Dynamic DNS Service

February 12th, 2010 by Simon

IP security cameras allow you to view your home or business from anywhere in the world with access to an Internet connection. To connect to your camera you need to know the IP address of your Internet connection that your camera is connected to. This is known as the ‘public’ IP address.

Most domestic ISPs allocate dynamic IP addresses which changes each time you connect to the Internet. If this happens it will leave you unable to connect to your camera.

Axis Internet Dynamic DNS Service provides a way to continually access your camera even if your IP address changes. This is achieved by your camera updating the Axis Internet Dynamic DNS Service with its current external IP address and the service provides you with a unique domain name to link to the address.

This guide walks you through the setup process.

Note >> Accessing you camera from over the Internet may require port forwarding in your router. For more information see: HOWTO: IP Camera Remote Access

HOWTO Step 1: Camera configuration

Log into your Axis IP camera and click on setup

Under ‘Basic Configuration’ on the left, click TCP/IP. The main window will now show the Basic TCP/IP settings, under the ‘Services’ heading there is an option for ‘AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service’, if you click the settings button a new window should open.

This new window contains all the settings for the Axis Internet dynamic DNS Service. Tick ‘Enable automatic updates to AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service’, ‘Enable regular updates to AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service’ and enter 1 in the box for ‘Interval in hours between updates’. This will configure the camera to send regular updates to the dynamic DNS service, click OK to save these settings and the window will close. All settings have now been saved and the camera configuration is complete.

Step 2: Axis Internet Dynamic DNS Service setup

While still in the camera setup reopen the previous window by clicking ‘settings’ in the ‘AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service’ heading. This time click the ‘Register’ button to open the website for Axis Internet Dynamic DNS service.

The web site will ask for the serial number of the IP camera you wish to setup. This should already be entered. Click ‘proceed’ and you will receive a temporary domain name for access to you camera over your local network for 14 days without registration.

Note >> If you need to find your camera’s serial number it can be found on the camera itself, on the box and in the setup menu (the MAC address of the camera is the serial number if you remove the colons).

To setup a domain name for external access you will need to permanently register your camera by clicking the ‘permanently resister my product’ button near the bottom of the page.

If you have previously registered your details with AXIS you can use these details to register your camera. If not you will need to select new user and register you details.

After registration the advanced setting page is where you can customise the domain name used to access you IP camera. Enter you desired domain name in to the box and click save settings.

Step 3: Testing

After successful selection of a domain name you should now be able to connect to your Axis camera with your chosen domain name. However, this may only work on an external Internet connection. Routers have a feature called NAT loopback which stops traffic going out and being directed straight back, so test on a different Internet connection or ask someone else to test it.

You should now be able to view and login to your Axis IP camera from an external IP connection. If you find you are unable to view your Axis IP camera you may need to set up port forwarding rules in you router to allow external access through to your camera.

5 Responses to “HOWTO: Axis Internet Dynamic DNS Service”

Choose TCP/IP under the basic menu then scroll to the bottom of the page to select the advanced TCP/IP settings.

On that page look for the entry for HTTP Port. It should be set to the default of 80. You can change it there and click save to save changes.

Remember that if you change the port you would need to specify it when accessing the camera, even on the local network. To specify it you would put a colon (:) then the port number, after the IP address.

The DNS service is setup as described, but every few weeks when BT changes the external IP the camera never updates the IP service. It is still working, and sends the motion detect emails, but we cannot access it online. Any idea why not ?

Lan, it is because camera is able to connect to internet (from inside your network to public internet), but for the opposite direction it’s impossible, because you are trying to connect to old IP adress.

You should order a fixed, public IP address from your ISP or use Dynamic DNS service as described (so, you will not access your IP camera via IP adress but via an URL you will get from Dynamic DNS service provider).